No time to rewind
by Grapefruit-seven
Summary: Hiccup wants to visit his old friend Jackson in Burgess - only to find out he died a year ago. Things go downhill when he discovers Jack's sister is currently missing in a snow storm. So he sets out to find the child - with the unexpected help of a certain winter spirit!
1. The Dragon Book

_Disclaimer: Neither Rise of the Guardians nor How to Train your Dragon belongs to me. That would've been AWESOME!_

_Now enjoy!_

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><p>Hiccup liked being in the dark, spacious room he called his workshop nowadays. A room full of cloth, wood, wire, metal and paint to repair Toothless's new tail when needed. He had this one new design of it in his mind that might work even better than the current one.<p>

If he could find the blueprints for the last one!

He had already taken measures of Toothless' tail. Heck that had been a long, frustrating task!

No way in frozen hell he wanted to repeat all the chasing, teasing and falling on his face!

He rumoured around his archives. When did the measurements got lost? So far they weren't on his working space, not inside the folders respective for designs, not in the folders for cloth or wood and not in any other folder. He checked them nonetheless, just in case. They weren't inside the drawers of his working space, not in the drawers across his room, not in the top shelves hanging from the wall and not inside any boxes for metal or cloth. Heck, he even peeked under his heavy wooden working space - all in vain.

Peachy. Just peachy.

First some trouble with one of the dragons scaring the sheep in the morning, then the door to his workshop stuck and now he couldn't find those darn blueprints!

Feeling increased frustrated, he started searching in the last place he wanted to file. His old stuffed shelf with loads of old books for inspiration and old design ideas and many loose papers. He needed to clear up that mess, but he always found himself postponing the annoying task. And besides until now he had to adjust to his new prosthesis that clearly wasn't made for unsteady stunts. Well, screw this, he had no time for unnecessary caution!

Just to prove him wrong as he grabbed one of the bigger folders, it slipped his grip – and crashed down the floor. Paper seemed to be literally everywhere like a snow blanket. "No!" Hiccup yelled.

That was enough!

Enough was enough!

Hiccup slumped on a chair, breathing heavily. This sucked!

He needed to calm down; otherwise he might destroy something. Pent-up frustration can do that.

So calm down, calm down…

…

He grinded his teeth and fiercely clenched his fist for a while until the adrenaline started to drop. With it came short exhaustion.

After drawing some long breaths in silence he let his eyes wander around his cramped study to distract himself. Paper littered all around the room due the accident, wire chunks, wood on the floor, cloths in a wooden chest and some books about wood carvings or dragons.

Hiccup slightly smiled and stood up, reaching carefully towards the old, huge book about dragons and take it out of the shelve. Then he opened the book with yellowed papers on a random page about ice dragons and set back on his chair. He would have to update the page about Nightfuries… on a second thought it was more reasonable if he might even create his own dragon book with all his knowledge. Sounds good.

As he let his mind wander with his thoughts about what to write in that book, he absently browsed through the pages until he found some partly burned pages.

Aw, yeah, he remembered **that **clearly as well.

It had been almost three years ago that a salesman came to Berk with the old, rare book in tow and Hiccup so fascinated over the book that he absolutely craved to own it. However… it exceeded his pocket money enormously. Bad luck.

His friend however! Absolutely hilarious!

His friend had sneaked up the salesman's goodies and held a small candle underneath – just enough to blacken some of its papers and anger the salesman to no end. A big rampage with curses in a language neither of them had ever heard followed and, of course, detention for his friend. Three weeks! But it was worth it. Hiccup snickered at that memory. That way he had been able to buy the book half the prize!

"Was it worth it?" was his friend's first grinning words after his detention. It totally was!

Even now after his friend – his name was Jackson – had moved from Berk (since it became too dangerous with the increase in dragon attacks back then), the book held a dozen of information even though the gist of the book was 'Dragons are deadly. Stay away.'

Honestly? Dragons were nothing like that.

That's why he wanted to write his own one.

But Hiccup also wondered what became of his childhood friend.

"Don't come until you've taken your first dragon down, Killerblood!"

In a way that was their partway promise.

And he had taken a dragon down. Okay, Toothless hadn't died along the way (to which he was very grateful) – but there hadn't been anything about killing the dragon in their description, had it?

And both of them knew this promise wasn't that serious – just a goal to archive. If they ever got that lucky.

Hiccup really wondered what became of his friend.

He knew his family travelled down south to a secluded village called Burgess where relatives of Jackson's mother lived.

Hiccup sighed and stood up. Time to clean the mess! And afterwards he could either look on the map where Burgess lies or ask his father about it.


	2. Old Weathered Wood

_Disclaimer: Like I said I don't own How to Train your Dragon or Rise of the Guardians. _

_And I forgot to tell in last chapter that this story is after the first movie, but in front of the second one since I sadyl haven't watched that yet. :/ However it might fit for after the second movie as well?_

_EDIT: Woops, forgot half of the chapter! Now it's fixed :'D_

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><p>"You stay here, Toothless. I'll be back soon, don't worry." The black dragon tilted his head to the side and inspected Hiccup in a split second from head to toe with his bright, intelligent eyes, then spread his wings and flap-walked back into the forest like Hiccup suggested.<p>

A few weeks prior Hiccup had told his father of his small undertaking to visit Burgess for one or two days. Today he would finally see his friend Jack again!

He wasn't nervous, no no.

After politely asking for directions to the house of family Overland through the humble cottage, he made his way to the given route and anxiously rubbed his lanky hand over his arm. It was getting significantly colder by the minute. Glancing at the grey, dull sky he suggested to hurry and hope his friend wasn't out of home right now. It was going to snow soon, perhaps even a snow storm.

Better hurry.

Finally the house came in view.

Hiccup nervously knocked on the brown, partly weathered front door. It took quite some time for the inhabitants of the small house to react on the noise. If he hadn't already seen thin smoke curling out from the chimney, he would have thought no one was home.

The whole house he stood in front of had the air of depressiveness. It just wasn't right. He imagined the house of his friend to be an open, colourful and welcoming home to weary feet and cold hands. He imagined it to be full of life with happy people basically glowing with content.

Not like the pale woman that opened the front door.

He needed a few seconds to examine her dull brown hair and the bags under her eyes and a few more seconds to actually recognize her as Jack's mother.

She looked as withered as a sheet of paper in rain. Hiccup seriously wondered what must have happened to turn such a cheerful lady into that shadow that stood before him.

Jackson's family had been honoured among the villagers of Berk; although they neither possessed outstanding charisma nor excellent strength, they were known for their kindness and good manners.

They also had the knack of negotiating and getting goodies cheaper than usual. In a way Jackson took after his parents with that – in his own troublemaker way of course.

"…Who are you…?"

The thin woman in the front door squinted her eyes as if she wasn't used to strangers. Was she really Jackson's mother? Or did he mistake her? It had to be – but against better judgement Hiccup kept trying.

"Mrs. Overland, it's me, Hiccup! Jack's friend!" She flinched, just barely, and kept her gaze unsure. "Do you remember me?" Hiccup asked with questioning eyes.

Then recognition hit her and she widened her eyes. "You… you're the lovely boy that was Jackson's friend back in Berk!"

Hiccup felt a small itch of bemusement on that repetition of words; however it quickly died down as he focused back on the severe conversation.

"Yes, Ma'am, it me, Hiccup!" He smiled slightly. "I came to visit Jack. How's he?"

A far huger shadow passed her face and she clearly took one step away from the door; as if suddenly burned by the handle.

"Ma'am? Are you all right?" Hiccup asked uneasily and worried if something was wrong with his choice of words. But then again he started to realize it was more of the content that shook the woman.

"No… no… it's fine…" She told him absentminded, as if she already told it hundreds of times before. Hiccup's concern grew and he knitted his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" and then, as if on cue, another, frightening thought entered his mind – one that made perfectly sense with how dark and sorrowful everything looked.

"Did something happen?"

"I… we… Jack…" At that point her voice broke and she hid her troubled face behind the door.

"Ma'am? What happened? Did something happen to Jack!?" Now Hiccup was really worried; he felt like his stomach was being punched into a hard knot of anxiousness.

"He… he…" she stopped again, then shook her pale head. "C-come in…"

Casting a small glance over his shoulder to the forest where Toothless hid, he stepped over the door frame and followed the troubled lady through the cold house.

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><p>The wooden corridor was cold and the house too silent for two hyperactive kids like the Overlands'. Only in the clean, dusty kitchen there was some light from a fire oven. A silent lone figure sat on one of the kitchen chairs and Hiccup recognized him as the father of the family. Since it started to get evening outside the faint yellow light was the only illumination the room possessed as Hiccup sat down on the kitchen chair with Jackson's mother.<p>

No offerings of tea, biscuits or so, no asking how he has been the last year – nothing that usually happened as he often visited Jackson back in their lively house in Berk.

However Mrs. Overland seemed to calm down significantly at the presence of her husband that already had been in the kitchen and silently watched both taking a seat. She stared at the partly burned down flames as she began.

"It was the beginning of winter last year… I remember it had been so unusual warm here compared back to Berk…" She seemed lost in her own thoughts; Hiccup politely waited for her to continue – he felt the gravity of the situation, although deep within he feared he already knew the answer.

"It was a bright, shiny day and shortly after the first frost has fallen down… Maggie was so happy about the first snow… and Jack absolutely wanted to go ice skating with her…"

She shook her head slightly with downcast eyes. "We were so careless… so careless…" Her husband wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders in support. "We didn't realize that Burgess… isn't as cold as Berk always is … so I approved them going to the l-lake in the forest… i-if I had known…" Her voice cracked at that part and she buried her face in her husband's chest.

Hiccup felt as if his throat was dry and thin with dread.

"What happened?" he wanted to know, distressed listening to the lady's small sobs. However before the lady could answer, someone else did. Someone with a high, thin voice coming from the door.

"The ice broke. And it's all my fault."

Mrs. Overland took a sharp inhale and turned pleadingly to the small girl in the door frame. "Maggie! Why-" Again she was interrupted, this time with rough, teary words.

"J-Jack died! And it's all **my **fault!" She barely hid her tears. Before anybody could react she spun on her heels and fled the kitchen. "Maggie!"

Hiccup tightly gripped his clothes with his hands. He had dreaded it from the point where Mrs. Overland couldn't tell him where Jack was. He had dreaded it, but hearing it from someone was on an entire different level. Especially if it came from Jack's sister with so much hurt in her voice.

The once so kind lady sobbed depressed as her husband gently stroke her back. And Hiccup himself had problems with digesting this kind of black news.

In Berk only old people or battered warriors died, almost never the children. He had heard about it happening, but… it had always seemed so far away… And Jack was so young – his age! Someone so active and full of life couldn't be dead… No way…

All three of them watched the first snow flakes falling down outside in dead silence for a long time. Finally Hiccup gathered the courage to ask silently if he could stay at their home until the snowfall ended.

No point trying to fly through a snowfall. That didn't work well. It was too cold for riding for longer times and it possibly got Toothless' wings too heavy with snow. Not even speaking of the injuries frost can bring on the thin webbed wings of his beloved black dragon.

He wouldn't risk getting his dragon hurt with frostbite, no.

Hiccup worried for his great companion although his head told him that Toothless was a creature used to cold and the wild and therefore perfectly fine. Hopefully Toothless found a shelter for the night before they made their way back home.

...Two days in front of their planned visiting schedule.


	3. The Truth that nobody wants

_Disclaimer: Yes, How to Train Your Dragon and Rise of the Guardians are too awesome to be done by me myself. So honor the rightful creators instead and hope for more films from them. _

_Now onward to the a bit smaller chapter!  
><em>

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><p>Hiccup sat on the guest bed, in a room too depressed and a house too silent with the recent death. He had unpacked the little belongings he brought with him and since then stared out the window in the steadily increasing snow falling down and trying to comprehend the earlier conversation. He couldn't.<p>

He simply couldn't!

It was all so surreal to think of his friend dead – the mischievous, joyful boy that wasn't only looking for strength like most other kids in Berk did. The cool boy that often actually made fun of other kids that strived to become super strong warriors and made Hiccup's life hard. The kind boy he had made a promise with.

Him gone? Forever?

It was depressing. Nothing that he did expect as he had planned to visit a friend.

Sighing he stood up and returned to the kitchen, the only difference being that the father of the broken family was making sandwiches as an evening meal. Not even warm dinner was served.

"Where is Maggie?"

Since he barely knew the house, Hiccup shrugged and slumped down onto the chair while Mrs. Overland didn't even react to her husband's question, so the man sighed heavily and disappeared to gather their small, sad daughter.

Hiccup heard him walking up to the second floor, shuffling around and calling for Maggie. Then he came back down and searched for her in other rooms. A long time later he stomped into the kitchen with hastened steps.

"She's not here."

That snapped the mother out of her depressed thoughts. "Did you check every room?"

"Yes." "Even the loft?" "Even there." "Perhaps she went to the neighbours?"

They hoped for it, seeing the falling snow started to gather up wind every passing minute. It looked like Hiccup had been right with his observation, even though he didn't like it. In a silent agreement they went to take their warmest clothes and search for Maggie within the small, secluded village. Perhaps that was a bit overrating, but Hiccup couldn't blame them at all.

No parent wanted to be unaware of their child's whereabouts while cold snow fell outside. Especially when they lost another child the year before.

So they settled to ask around the village for Maggie.

"Is it just me or is the snow storm getting harsher by the second?" Hiccup practically shouted in front of him after a while of searching her in places she might be or houses she might sit inside. Mr. Overland quietly stopped in his tracks and turned to face both his wife and Hiccup. As he spoke, Hiccup blankly watched the snow flakes that covered on his small beard: "This doesn't work. We have to split up, or else all of us will freeze to death."

"I'm going to the southern parts" stated Mrs. Overland firmly "and we should ask our neighbours for help." "Okay, I'm going west. And Hiccup, can you go east?"

So they took off separated. The first houses were kind of awkward since he wasn't familiar with the people at all and they thought he was a stranger needing a shelter from the storm. Therefore it took him painfully long to convince them he didn't.

"No, sir! It's about Maggie! You know, Maggie Overland? She's missing, sir! Is she at your house? Or do you know where she is?"

Hiccup came to notice Maggie had many hideouts – a hay barn, behind an oven, in her friends' rooms, with the small pigs or some other places. But she was no where in sight.

The worried villagers even started to come out and help searching for the little, polite girl that loved her brother so much.

Not much time later many people ran as fast as the upcoming storm allowed from house to house. A while ago a villager, a charismatic man, had grouped himself together with Hiccup, seeing he was intentionally only here for a short visit. In the end Hiccup just tagged along, silently warming up his fingers with his breath and let the man do the talking since the man knew all the people personally.

"Mr. Funder, have you seen Maggie?" The asked man in the doorframe blinked as he slightly shivered in the cold wind. "No, not recently. Why? Has something happened?" he asked, noticing the urgent atmosphere around everyone. "She's missing and we're searching the whole village to find her." "Wait a sec', I'm coming along!"

Everyone was growing really uneasy, although many joined to help finding Maggie with their increasing search party.

The search party that now has come to one conclusion.

A severe conclusion.

.

.

Maggie wasn't in the village.


	4. Rise up with the wind

_Disclaimer: No, HTTYD and ROTG aren't created by me._

_But I have to say I'm lucky that my orchestra decided to play the soundtrack of HTTYD! :3_

_Especial thanks to __faisyah865 for all your comments!_

_._

_Enjoy!_

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><p>Thick clouds wandered high above the ground as the cold wind howled and breathed and pushed the clouds across the land.<p>

It was an amazing view that many humans longed for – to see the mountains of foreign lands, so many different cities and people, rivers and oceans silently moving in their daily route and carrying ships safely from one land to another. And above everything the broad, wide blue sky with the pale, blue moon, the endless stars and the warm, caring sun.

And Jack enjoyed it to its fullest. Although he didn't know how many humans held such longing for the view he was able to enjoy, he didn't mind. It was one of the best things – to see all those giant trees and even more giant mountains to shrink down to the size of a peanut, to feel the kick of gravity pulling him down until the wind eagerly lifted him back up and swirled around happily.

He had travelled through many different lands with different trees and different animals and different people in different buildings. It was fascinating. It was awesome. However… one thing dimmed all his excitement. He didn't know why… but nobody could see Jack Frost.

It kind of bothered him.

During his short existence, Jack had watched humans several times. He looked like them – he already confirmed that through glancing in his reflection on ice and water, but then again he was different at the same time. Jack was sure he never had seen a human flying like him or conjuring snow with the flick of his wrist. They walked right through them as if he was air, but if they bumped into each other, they fell down and cursed loudly. No fair.

So why was it that he was he like air to them?

The wind shook especially violent to get him out of his downward ponderings. Jack snapped - a little bit embarrassed - back to focus and rose higher again in the cold, blue sky.

"Yeah, right – a job to do! Thanks, wind!"

A smile tugged on his lips as he stretched his staff and plucked some cotton-like part out of one thick cloud. Quickly he kneaded it into a snowball infused with his snow magic, shortly inspected his handiwork and swiftly tossed it down with all his might.

Bam! The snowball exploded in thousands of thousands of white, glittering snow flakes.

The first snow of the year for that area.

It was fun to do. Jack was aware he could simply use his staff for same effect – but exploding snowballs are much more fun!

The wind whipped around Jack in a joyful manner and playfully whirled Jack through the air, pleading for more. The wind loved exploding snowballs just as much as Jack.

He laughed at the wind's anticipation as he prepared another set of snowballs.

This land was going to be white very soon!

Bam! The snow settled down on the crowns of the coniferous forest. Bam! The children in the near village screamed in joy, hopping out of their houses and held out their tongues to catch the snow. Bam! Some birds flushed and fled terrified as snow rained on them. "Woops, sorry!"

Honestly, somehow he kind of recognized this land. Has he been here before?

Pondering over that thought Jack threw some more exploding snow. Some time later he stopped, sat in the air and adored his craftwork.

A flash of memory hit him. **Of course** he has been here before! That was the region of Jack's first memory! The place where he had seen the moon the first time! His eyes lit up in glee.

Jack didn't know it had been a year since that event. He didn't know of the concept of 'year' yet since all the time from his awakening on that lake last winter, he had travelled with the wind to the south, skipping the warm desert and rainforest, reaching Antarctica and wandering back up north. All the while he was fascinated with the new places and didn't pay any heed to time. Or the concept of 'year'. Therefore he was surprised to find himself back in the place he started first.

He was still new on this job after all.

But seeing his first awakening place after that long was interesting, so he took off smiling and eagerly towards that direction and excitedly telling his wildly wondering wind about it.

It didn't take long. However just as his desired destination came in view, his happy glee turned into confusion. He hadn't been here before this year, had he?

So why was everything already covered in white snow?

And why was a snow storm boiling hard down there?

Wasting no time to inspect, Jack Frost immediately dove downwards and rushed headfirst into the full-sized snow storm.

Bad idea.

Instead of being able to calm the winds down like expected, Jack **himself** was being tossed around like a small snowflake. What the…? He found his vision instantly getting blurred by the whirling snow storm and disorientated as the wind smashed him around. His hair slammed into his face, then the hoodie of his sweater did and his flailing hand. The wind buckled under him and screamed as if it was hurt. It screamed hard.

By what? And how?

Jack felt nauseous as his view continuously toppled over and over again. Suddenly he noticed his grip on his beloved staff beginning to slip. No chance in hell! After a frightening second of losing his staff, Jack clutched the frost-covered shepherd crook in his arms with all might. And finally he was able to get some senses into the raging wind. He felt the wind rushing sharply through his fingers and quickly tried to grip the wind.

For a second it seemed that the wind came to a sudden standstill, however it was gone just as fast as it came. Just as if it considered him a trespasser, Jack was tossed out with sudden and much harsher winds into the calmer outskirts of the snow storm, right full force into a thick fir. Only barely was the wind able to cushion his impact, and it was only enough to save him from the fir's needles while it felt hard as stone. It still drove all air from Jack's lungs and left him struggling for air – in both ways.

Never before did a wind reject him that hard.

He felt shaken and his whole back ached for a while with his barely avoided crash. He had no clue what had happened right now.

On the other hand… he did have a bad hunch that whatever it was, he didn't like it. The spirit felt his body shake with natural intuition.

No **normal** wind did reject Jack Frost.

As he had been surprised and thrown around the vortex of icy snow earlier, he had subconsciously taken notice of the pained and roughened surface of the wind. Normal winds were smooth and creamy, not screaming in agony. He instinctually felt the malice radiating from an unknown source, a strong force that enslaved the wind to cool degree after degree and release its moisture as snow. Crudely made snow.

Somewhere something manipulated the wind to lash out like a whip and Jack Frost didn't like that at all.

It didn't help that he noticed the black squares on the outskirts of the snow storm that indicated a village full of these humans he had grown fond of over the year.

However he pushed the thought to the back of his head since it worried him more that the area the crude snow covered grew. Rapidly.

He knew from the worried wind that it only was going to get worse on.

Jack Frost jumped down towards the ground and into the forest. He had to investigate this. Yes, now that he wasn't taken by surprise anymore, he stood a chance against the hostile wind. However he wanted to find out the source behind the force **without** being found out and not even knowing where the possible enemy lured.

So it was walking.

.

.

On retro perspective – if he had chosen to fly against the wind instead of walking… he wouldn't have a deep bite wound right now.


	5. Twice a pounce

_Disclaimer: Me do not own ROTG or HTTYD - or else this would be a video instead of a FANfiction._

_Why does my extra space always shrink down after I save the document? Unfair. So have "." instead._

_Enjoy!_

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><p>Dark, cute beady eyes shoved themselves into his field of vision.<p>

Jack arched his eyebrows and leaned back to pat the deer on the neck, feeling a bit awkward. On his search through the forest he took notice of a herd of shivering deer, surprised by the sudden snow storm whipping through the coniferous forest. And Jack found himself feeling pity for the poor mammal, so he quickly conjured a snowy shelter for the small flock. Though he didn't expect them to show that much gratitude, it was of course a gentle act that Jack liked.

Shortly patting the wiry brown fur and feeling its hard, warm muscles, Jack bid farewell to the deer, happy to not be affected by the raging cold the snow storm brought and ventured on his inquiry to the upsetting source of the cold winds. Instinctually he felt he came closer to its source and tension made his stomach clutch.

Only a small whimper made him stop in his tracks again. It did sound like a small dog, or… a small child?

Jack scanned his surroundings with raised eyebrows.

Trees. Snow and firs. More firs and similar trees. Shrubs and firs. And a brown clothed creature quivering in the wind shadow of a fir.

It really was a small child. One with brown hair and she had her brown leather and fur winter clothes wrapped around her, though it apparently wasn't enough to block the cold. Her eyes also were red rimmed from crying and her gaze was dully glazed over. Estimated on her blue fingertips that held the clothes and from her pale face, Jack could tell she was going to knock on death's door in around two hours.

Poor girl.

It was nothing in Jack's might that he could do – only build a snow shelter like he did with the deer, but only looking at her he knew that wasn't enough to save her. Even if the snow storm miraculously stopped – which Jack knew by instinct won't happen – the girl would still die.

Jack squatted in front of the shivering girl and sighed sadly. "Why weren't you in your village like you should be? Now you're going to freeze to death!" he scolded the oblivious girl, melancholic and frustrated at the same time.

It wasn't his first time something like this happened. Every time it pained Jack had to watch someone die in the snow. Sometimes it was a lost child, sometimes an abandoned dog, sometimes an old man living on the street. And every time he cursed himself that he was damn not be able to help, not even a little bit.

Not for the first time Jack wished he could touch humans and help him.

.

Fifteen seconds later he regretted that wish.

.

.

.

.

Sometimes it is better to stay silent.

Sometimes you say something you don't mean.

And sometimes you say something you mean but someone else mistakes it.

.

"Why weren't you in your village like you should be? Now you're going to freeze to death!"

Those were the words that snapped Toothless into aggression. The black dragon crouched down aggravated and pressed his ears down, tension running down his body and readying a pounce on the enemy.

The enemy. Toothless had never seen it before, but he in fact had seen similar ones that roamed the world. Most of the times they stayed neutral and on rare occasions they showed respected politeness and friendliness, but nothing more.

That changed however after Hiccup stepped into his life. Still there were these neutral and those kind ones, but there also roamed an evil one around Berk. Never to be caught by eye, tail or fire. Always quick to hide in the shadow, but coming back especially at nights to haunt the people in the dark or in their dreams.

He came sporadically, but he came nonetheless.

Most frustrating about it was – no one except Toothless apparently saw it.

Humans didn't notice the neutral ones and they only caught glimpses of the gentle or wicked ones. These ones they called spirits.

And then there had been an incident once with a long-haired brown small kobold in Berk. It strolled one light afternoon into the village, leaped onto the lunch table and started drinking the milk. Toothless had eyed it incredulous and started snarling as it moved on to the fish – Toothless' fish.

"What's the matter, buddy? Hungry?" Hiccup asked and laughed. Why didn't he notice the thief that took Toothless' precious fish? His frustration broke his patience and he swiftly pounced onto the evil creature that now in turn got a terrific surprise.

It ended with a scolding Hiccup, a fleeing and panicked kobold and a flipped, destroyed table with the contents of their delicious lunch on the floor.

Hiccup had penalized him with no fish for weeks.

From that point on Toothless had a wary, wary eye on all spirits.

"Why weren't you in your village like you should be? Now you're going to freeze to death!"

Now he had found another one of the sinister spirits that he loathed.

The spirit's lowly spoken threat rubbed him the wrong way, especially since he recognized the small girl to be the one to be searched. Toothless wasn't giving up on his task and find her alive just to lose her to a wicked spirit.

Time to stop the threat. Toothless put all his strength into the unexpected jump and slammed into the spirit, pulling it down fast and biting it into its shoulder as hard as he could. The spirit hollered in pain.

.

"Toothless!"


	6. Icy fight

_Disclaimer: Nope, HTTYD and ROTG are absolutely my creations. _

_And because of that I would rather create a simple fanfiction story and make absolutely no money with it since it's a free one.  
><em>

_Naaah..._

_Okay, seriously - they don't belong me._

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><p>"Toothless!"<p>

Hiccup tugged on his furred collar. His departure from the small village currently in uproar wasn't that long ago and still the snow storm dropped in temperature and gained in intensity. That couldn't be a normal snow storm, could it?

But he had to keep focus on different things – like finding Maggie, the little sister of his friend Jackson. His dead friend Jackson… Hiccup violently shook his head to clear his mind again. No distractions!

The villagers had organized many search parties and took off to scout the near forest. However it was a lost case from the start, looking how harsh the wind now blew. It was almost like walking against a brick wall in the open spaces of the village and it was only a little bit less harsh inside the forest than outside. And besides, the forest was a wide and inaccurate field to search in. One could search for years and still not find anything.

So – actually finding Maggie was near to impossible.

At least for humans.

But not for dragons.

"Toothless!"

Hiccup had strayed behind his search party in the woods and easily lost them between the green firs. Not hard to accomplish with his metallic prosthetic. Nope.

Next step in his personal search party for Maggie was finding Toothless – alone. He couldn't allow Toothless to be seen, there was no time for diplomatic introductions between fearful humans and frightening dragons - at least not for right now.

"Toothless!"

Whump.

Right as Hiccup was screaming his dragon's name the third time something black crashed down a conifer. Hiccup swiftly jumped back, barely avoiding a shower of fresh snow - nonetheless got it sprayed in his face.

"Bah! Hey Toothless!"

The black dragon in front of him sneered cheerfully. He wasn't fazed by the cold weather after all.

Hiccup held a furred cap in the dragon's direction. "Hey Toothless, Could you do me a favour? Can you track this person for me? It's very important!" Sensing the seriousness of Hiccup's gaze, the dragon swiftly accepted by sniffing on the cap.

Hiccup wisely had snatched it from the Overland's dressing room earlier. Since the hat was too small for both adults of the house, he sincerely hoped it belonged to the missing Maggie.

So they set out, carefully avoiding other search groups and progressing further inside the large boreal forest. Hiccup constantly rubbed his arms and shivered in the harsh wind blowing through the firs. Even his lined, warmest clothes could hold off the cold for so long.

Suddenly Hiccup bumped into the warm, black body of Toothless. The dragon didn't even notice him crashing, too concentrated on something ahead. Hiccup shortly wobbled a few steps back and tried to detect what exactly had caught the creature's attention.

He found nothing.

Toothless just stood there attentively. And then out of nowhere crouched down and growled lowly, a shiver of aggression running through his tensed muscles and his mouth showing an angrily clenched snarl. It looked like the dragon was abou-

Right before Hiccup could think, the angry dragon pounced and jumped out of his vision. Seconds later he heard the whack of the rough landing. Quickly he ran around some bushes while listening to his dragon's snarls. However as the battlefield came in view, he noticed several things.

Toothless hadn't pounced on some creature like Hiccup had assumed.

Toothless stood in front of a larger fir, growling at the ground with opened jaw.

And in front of the dragon sat a shivering figure, glancing mildly startled at the threat before her.

It was a girl. A small girl with brown hair.

Maggie. They've found Maggie.

And his dragon was about to rip her apart.

"Toothless!"

Hiccup broke into a desperate run. "Don't touch her!" he shouted distressed.

Immediately the dragon flinched on the scold and his anger deflated noticeably, however still not moving an inch.

Then the dragon abruptly howled in pain and staggered some steps to the side. What the-?

Ice unnaturally grew on his left front leg. The dragon roared in pain and rage and pounced a second time, clearly missing the small, confused girl sitting near the fir.

Hiccup stood speechless like a tree as his dragon started a one-sided string of attacks. Had he gone mad?

Shaking off his confusion and taking advantage of the distracted situation, he made his way around the strange battlefield until he reached the girl on the other side.

"Maggie!" he asked worried. The girl eyed him with unfocused eyes and stared blankly ahead, barely even registering that someone stood in front of her. She had obvious troubles with staying conscious and that wasn't good. She felt almost as cold as snow as he shortly touched her. There was barely any time left to avoid having her frozen up. He had to get her into the warmth, and fast!

Time to stop Toothless' ridiculous show!

Straight as he breathed in to shout at his gone-mad dragon, the ground of the small clearing froze and made Toothless slip and crash down on his chest. The floor… just froze and looked like it belonged to a lake instead of on the ground covered in mud and leaves.

What was going on here?

Simply by looking on Toothless' partly frozen body and on the surroundings covered in shards of ice he could tell this was definitely not a normal phenomenon. It hit Hiccup then that it looked like a fight.

Right then an invisible force hit Toothless in the face. The dragon's head snapped back and roared angrily at the invisible opponent.

Or… was it invisible?

Hiccup thought he caught a glimpse of brown on the side of his eye. Hardly noticeable, but it still was there, standing in the middle of the frosted clearing and tossing frozen snow on his precious dragon.

At that point his brain stumbled and stuttered. Seconds ago he had been concerned about his dragon going mad and attacking no one. Now he was concerned he **himself** was going mad. Since when did a boy stand there in a fighting stance, anticipating his dragon's next moves?

Hiccup just stood there flabbergasted.

While his mouth dropped open in surprise and his brain tried to grasp the seemingly impossible, the battle went on like before – and finally now it made sense!

The black, angered dragon pounced and attacked while the teen with the brown coat tried to avoid them, only to shoot back ice with his crooked shepherd staff. It was bizarre.

Toothless fired a bolt of fire that caught his opponent by surprise. Even though the attack only grazed him, he hissed in pain and doubled over, holding his arm. This was the opportunity the dragon had searched for and crashed on top of him, effectively trapping him underneath his heated body.

A scream of pain ranged through the clearing.

.

Even though he struggled, cursed and shot weak ice, the boy couldn't free himself from the dragon's crushing weight.

After some time their struggle came to a tensed standstill, both opponents trying to gain the hand over the other. It was then that Hiccup deemed it safe enough to approach their weird captive awkwardly.

All of his body except the upper chest, head and one arm was trapped beneath the dragon and even the free arm got pinned down by Toothless' sturdy paw.

Now that he studied the teenager lying face-down, he noticed his pale skin tone and even paler white hair. Who the heck had white hair as a kid? On the other side, who the heck could shoot ice with his staff? Unless…

"Are you a magician?" he asked curiously.

The boy didn't seem to notice the question directed towards him for the first seconds. Probably he was more focused on the heavy weight of the dragon above him, so Hiccup tried again.

"Hey, you. Are you a magician?" That apparently caught the teen's attention. His eyes widened as he noticed Hiccup squatting in front of him and watching him with curiously arched eyebrows. His struggle with the dragon came to an immediate stop. Hiccup noticed he somehow reminded him of someone. But who?

The boy stuttered. "Wh-wha…? C-Can you see me? A-Are you talking to me?"

Hiccup blinked, not expecting that kind of answer. "Why, yes, of course – who else could I be talking to?" he answered bemused. The kid glanced up in bewilderment and was that baffled that it took him some time to register the sarcasm, but then a glint of mischief appeared in his eyes as well. "Perhaps the big, angry dragon above me?"

Hiccup chuckled, then dropped the topic for now and focused on something more important. "Why did you attack Toothless?" "Toothless?" Seeing the confusion returning in his gaze, Hiccup quickly threw in: "My dragon. The one that sits on you. But say, did you attack Toothless?"

And then anger clouded the boy's somehow familiar face. "I didn't attack! It was your dragon!" Sensing the anger bursting through, the dragon still on top reminded him where he was by pressing the teen's body more into the frozen ground. It didn't seem to concern him however. Seeing the surprise in Hiccup's eyes, he pressed on: "I was just standing there and then your vicious dragon attacked me! I didn't do anything!"

He clearly looked sincere and Hiccup found himself believing the oddly familiar boy. Hiccup's face loured and he glanced at the dragon above, just to test the theory. The dragon in return looked angry, then realized something in his thought as Hiccup progressed to fixate him and then turned to look downwards onto the lanky teenager underneath as if he noticed him lying there the first time and wondered why in the world the kid found it cool to be squashed underneath a dragon.

The conversation came to a stop for the time being and left everyone wondering what exactly had happened. It was all a buried in a mayhem of angry, blurry emotions by now.

None of them broke the silence – a small cough did.

It reminded them all that there was a fourth person on the clearing. A shivering, cold, ill person that continued to walk straight forward towards death's door.

Hiccup's head shot up and he scolded himself for completely forgetting the most important thing, the subject that even brought them into this position.

"Maggie!"

With a few unsteady steps he was on the small, shivering girl's side and gripped her shoulders. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

The girl didn't notice his grip and coughed silently. She was as cold as a stone.

"Toothless! We have to get her as fast as we can to the village!" Hiccup shouted over his shoulder, carefully pushing the girl up. She didn't resist, just closed her eyes. Toothless, sensing the urgency of the situation, wanted to jump up and help Hiccup heaving the cold girl onto his shoulders, however he stopped halfway through. He couldn't let their prisoner escape, so he reluctantly sat back, much to the boy's dismay.

Hiccup slowly dragged the unconscious girl towards his nervous dragon. He had to hurry! Standing in front of the dragon with his prisoner underneath, he comprehended that it didn't work.

"Hey, you… you said you didn't want to attack Toothless… then… did you…" he started hectically until he trailed off, noticing a missing detail he hadn't become aware of before. Quickly he recollected the beginning situation. Toothless had stood in the direction where Maggie sat. And the somehow familiar teenager had said to just stand somewhere. The dragon had then attacked. Theoretically the teenager then stood… "Did you want to attack Maggie?" he asked fast. That would explain Toothless' weird overreaction at least.

"No! Who do you take me for?! Pitch Black?" Before Hiccup got a chance to answer that odd question, the boy cut him off. "I just wanted to help her." Hiccup wasn't sure if he imagined it, but the last sentence sounded somewhat sad. Toothless on the other hand didn't seem to buy that. The dragon growled.

And there… there was another thing that bugged Hiccup, the more he thought about it. The teen already proved to be able to shoot ice with magic… was he also able to create a… "Did you conjure this snow storm?" Hiccup asked again hasty.

Again Hiccup's words riled the white-haired kid. "No! I would never freeze a kid to death!" But he didn't deny it or told it was ridiculous, so could he do it?

But there was no time for more investigation. He already had taken up much more time than he hoped - he needed to take Maggie as fast as he could to the village. And the fastest way was flying. He needed Toothless for that.

So he had to risk it.

Hiccup inhaled deeply.

.

.

"Toothless, release him."


	7. Icicles in a Frozen Forest

_Disclaimer: As usual, ROTG and HTTYD are not my creations, only this crossover fanfiction. _

_My orchester was playing HTTYD soundtrack recently! It was a total success! :)_

_Enjoy!_

_._

* * *

><p>"Toothless, release him." The black dragon looked up with bewilderment in his slanted eyes, but quietly complied.<p>

Hiccup had no time for mistrust. He needed his dragon right now, so for now he had to believe the strange boy's words.

"I hope you don't betray my trust" Hiccup worded carefully, tensing up as the skinny teenager rubbed his sore arms and pushed himself up with his fallen staff while slightly groaning.

The teenager ahead of him wore a white shirt, brown old trousers, bound together with pieces of leather straps and two worn brown cloaks. And strangely enough ice covered the tips of his clothes. Hiccup even noticed thin ice crystals spreading on the crooked shepherd staff, right where the teen's fingers touched it.

Then the teenager straightened himself and their eyes met.

Green and blue.

For the second time in a short while, Hiccup stood there flabbergasted.

"J… Jack?" Hiccup gaped upon his deceased friend.

His not so dead friend that in return was surprised as well. What the heck…?

"I-I thought you were dead!" Hiccup shouted thunderstruck. Then his words tumbled out of his mouth as fast as a waterfall. "Ithoughtyou weredead! DoyouknowhowmuchyourMumgotmeshocked? Wherehaveyoubeenand whydoeseverybodythinkyou'rede-?"

"You know my name?"

The teen in front of him had cut Hiccup's torrent of words with a excited smile on his lips and a simple sentence.

The words died on Hiccup's tongue again. It felt the same as if someone had punched him. "Wha… what do you mean?! Of course I know your name!" He tightly clenched his trembling hands into fists. "It's me, Hiccup!" No recognition on Jack's face. "From Berk!" The white-haired kept smiling as if expecting something, but not identifying Hiccup. "Your friend from Berk!" …Nothing.

Hiccup tensed up. "You… don't remember?" And at the end of the sentence his voice broke.

.

.

.

Jack felt awkward.

First a vicious dragon had attacked him out of nowhere. And right when he feared he might end up as a roasted steak, the beast decided to use him as a chair. Clearly nothing comfortable – the thing was freaking heavy!

But the day had bigger surprises in tow. Like for example the dragon had a human partner. Or a human directly speaking to him. The first one ever that talked to him! And the first thing this boy did was suspecting him. Not that Jack blamed him – probably the brown-haired teen's first encounter with a spirit.

He was so excited to finally meet a human in person! And be able to help the poor girl with the aid of the human!

Speaking of her… she didn't look all too well. Pale skin, only lightly shivering and she was only barely conscious. Jack knew by instinct that they didn't have much time left to save her.

So why was the other boy so shocked to see Jack standing in front of him? The boy looked like he saw a ghost. He stammered about thinking Jack was dead. How? Of course it was funny the boy's friend and he apparently had the same name. Nice coincidence! But that was all, was it?

But the other boy (what was his name again? Something familiar…?) was saddened by it.

Jack smiled apologetic. "Sorry, but I think you mistake me with someone… I'm Jack Frost by the way, what's yours?"

"Ah… it's Hiccup…"

The way the Hiccup-kid kept staring at him sadly made him feel really awkward. Really. He hadn't imagined his first encounter with humans like this, but oh well.

Mentally slapping himself for wasting time, he straightened up considerably. "You should hurry up and get the girl to the village."

The brown-haired realized with a start that he again was drifting from the important issue at hand. "Right!" he yelled and called the dragon on his side.

Jack leaned a bit on his frost covered staff and watched Hiccup settling on the black dragon's back with the cold girl in front. "Do you really want to fly through the snow storm?" "It's the only way." Hiccup replied without looking up. "But you'll be blown around like a ragdoll." "I don't care."

Jack grinned. "Then I hope you don't mind if I help you!"

Before Hiccup had a chance to form an answer, Toothless shot up with a jerk and launched into the air.

.

.

.

Cold flakes of snow slammed into Hiccup's face. He tried to shield his eyes, navigate through the white mess and cover Maggie's body against the cold at the same time. Tough.

Instinctually he let Toothless manoeuvre and ducked low to protect Maggie even a bit. Darn wind slapped in his face every second.

The worst of all was the ever constant change of direction of the wind. In spite of the fact that Toothless tried to steady their fly the whole time, the wind shoved them off balance. Like a ragdoll. Hiccup cursed.

They barely avoided crashing into the treetops and almost flipped upside down. Hiccup steadied himself with the harness, but then his heart stopped a beat when he noticed that Maggie was slipping. As fast as possible he grabbed her shoulders; his muscles protested and his whole body jerked with the invisible impacts and then finally he yanked her back up and then…

A final jolt shot through Toothless' wings. **Nothing** followed after.

Hiccup warily glanced up. Nothing?

It seemed the wind had suddenly dimmed down and only blew in one direction anymore. They were on a steady course.

"You're okay?"

Hiccup's head shot around to the familiar voice. He blinked and gaped.

Jack twirled around them like a feather – no, more like a snowflake.

Hiccup couldn't believe his eyes.

"Y-Y-You can **fly**?!"

Jack laughed carefree. "Of course! I told you I'll help!"

And with a grin he shot ahead. Seconds later he was blown back by a harsh wind that shot cold air and flakes into Hiccup's face.

"Darn wind! Why doesn't it listen to me?" he heard Jack curse.

Another cold wave crashed into Toothless and another. This time however the dragon sharply jerked his head around as if detecting something around that didn't belong there. There was nothing… was it?

The dragon stared to the left, completely absorbed.

"…Toothless?"

It snapped the dragon back to its senses – and not too early!

The dragon dove abruptly to the side with a screech as a huge wave of white exploded on their left side and almost crashed down on them. The black dragon shot up to the sky and out of reach.

"What in the world was that…?" Hiccup narrowed his eyes. He turned back incredulous and watched the spray of snow clearing.

A gigantic roar made even Toothless' head snap around and growl. "What the…?!"

A monstrous huge dragon leapt up the air behind them. It roared again. And was angry. Very angry.

Hiccup felt his body tense up. "Shi- Faster! Faster!" he screamed against the wind.

The dragon was going to attack them, that was sure. They must have accidently disturbed and aggravated the giant creature in his hide and now it flew after them to either kill or drive them away. Just by hearing the load roar Hiccup knew that it wouldn't be the second option. It wasn't even taking them as serious opponents.

Jack sped up at Hiccup's side with a mixture of realization and disbelief on his face, focusing on the dragon. "This thing!" he switched his glance between Hiccup and the dragon behind them "This thing is controlling the snow storm! I can feel it!"

"But we almost reached the village! We can't lead it there! It'll crush them all!"

"I can try to lure it away from the village! You take the girl there!" With incredible ease Jack turned and shot in the opposite direction, directly onward to collision with the big dragon.


	8. Blizzard

_Disclaimer: Mr. Bubbles can say you that How to Train Your Dragon and Rise of the Guardians are not my creations. _

_But nonetheless, enjoy this fanfiction!_

_PS: We're slowly reaching the end! Only one chapter after this!_

* * *

><p>Mrs. Overland was in despair.<p>

The villagers scrambled around in a hurry. Most of the men still were searching for the lost child in the forest, while the remaining people either searched around the village or built up protections against the ongoing snow storm. Normally they had enough time beforehand, but this snow storm came sudden and everybody was busy with the search earlier.

"Huh… what is that?"

Like some other villagers on the market place Mrs. Overland lifted her head and looked on the spot that was pointed at, but like no one she didn't have time to distinguish the black thing on the sky as it came crashing down fast. Really fast.

Several women screamed, many covered themselves in fright and everybody heard the hard impact.

Slowly the dust of the snow cleared. Mrs. Overland gasped in fright along with some women behind her.

A terrifying black dragon towered over her, its yellow eyes drilling into her very soul.

"Mrs. Overland!"

The scream broke her out of her shock and she stumbled some steps away.

People around gasped as a person jumped from the evil dragon's back. "Mrs. Overland!" The person stepped forward and called again.

Finally she blinked and recognized the brown hair and the green eyes in front of her.

"…Hiccup…?"

"Mrs. Overland! I have Maggie!"

Her eyes lit up. Without a thought she grabbed the shorter boy at his shoulders desperately. "Where?!"

The teenager glanced behind himself and Mrs. Overland followed his gaze. "She's on Toothless' back." Then his head snapped back with the spirit of fighting. "She's as cold as a stone! You have to get her warm before she's frozen!"

With that he hurried back to his dragon, Mrs. Overland hot on his heels. Although she was wary of the black dragon, her mind was filled with the motherly worry and she blindly stumbled forward as soon as she saw the glimpses of her daughter's body. Hiccup carefully took Maggie down and gave her to her mother, now with tears in her exhausted eyes.

But this wasn't over already.

Maggie now was in safety – but as long as the giant ice dragon threatened to come near the village, nobody was in safety until it was dealt about.

Normally ice dragons were said to stay in the regions of eternal ice even further north than Berk. Hiccup was worried that this dragon had found its way to this warmer climate.

He had to drive the dragon away.

Jack – Hiccup still couldn't believe it was Jack – was right with the thought about the origins of the storm. Hiccup remembered the rumours. Ice dragons brought death with endless snow and cold.

Why didn't he notice it earlier?

Hiccup climbed onto his dragon with a grim determination and they took off before any of the villagers had the time to react.

He had to force the dragon to the place it came from!

.

.

.

Jack had to throw himself backwards to avoid a wing attack.

His decoy had worked as good as it should… the only problem - now he had to avoid the dragon's attacks entirely focused on the flying spirit ahead. Not the way Jack had imagined it!

At least he found out it irked the giant dragon to no end that its elemental powers that called the wind and snow were mostly cancelled by the spirit. Jack did his best to deflect any cold and frost thrown at him and calmed the unleashed wind down as far as possible. Now that he knew the origins of the storm, he could work efficiently against it!

Sadly the dropout for frosty attacks applied to the other side as well. He had tried earlier to freeze the dragon or trip its balance, but nothing worked. The frost broke of after a few seconds and the dragon countered Jack's gusts with its own.

Yes, Jack was on even ground with the dragon when it came to the cold. No, it wasn't enough to defeat or at least drive the dragon back to the place it came from. It was only able to hinder and annoy it.

The dragon had awfully sharp teeth and claws as well.

So Jack was caught against his will in the position of avoiding and blocking. If he retreated, the dragon would continue to harass the village and Jack didn't want that. He was quite fond of humans, thank you very much.

So his focus was on avoiding and secretly luring the strong dragon away from the village.

Right as he backflipped and thus avoided the deathly claws of the huge dragon, he noticed a black spot on the sky behind. "Huh?"

Even though he quickly had to concentrate back onto the one-sided fight, it was enough for him to recognize the flying object. Toothless. He must be seeing things!

He happily spun around to welcome the special pair. "You came to help me?" he asked, clearly baffled. "Of course!" "That's awesome!" And with that they had to disperse and dove away from the giant dragon's bite.

Jack laughed merrily and zoomed around the giant dragon.

Now **that** was something different!

Happiness welled up in Jack's body. He was that happy that he couldn't even concentrate back to the ongoing battle anymore.

It was the first time someone actually saw him and it was the first time someone came to help him. If he had been older, he would have stayed more serious. But now the young spirit bounced up and down and laughed happy. Not even focusing on the battle anymore, just whirling around the giant ice dragon and annoying it to no end.

The furious dragon in return summoned blasts of wind that all missed; or it spun around after the much faster and more agile teen and tried to catch it with its attacks.

It looked like it was trying to swat an annoying fly away. Meanwhile Jack was focused on dodging, so he didn't have much time to watch Hiccup and Toothless' attacks. The smoke coming off on various body parts of the giant dragon were evidence enough.

Thus he only broke out of his glee after he had childishly hopped over a strong blast of wind that crashed into the black dragon behind him instead and made it flip and lose focus.

"Oops…" he noted wide-eyed. Better focus back onto the fight… ahem…

In the meantime Hiccup clearly wasn't having a good time, Jack noted.

While he had been busy being a pain in the neck for the dragon, his human battle partner had to dodge more than was able to attack. All courtesy to the miscalculated and annoyed swipes of the giant ice dragon.

Feeling a little bit guilty – but only a little bit – Jack hurried over to the black dragon that regained balance once again at the moment.

"You're okay?"

A short "Yes" was the quick response, even though Jack detected exhaustion in the voice. Were there more attacks that Jack had missed out? Not his intention.

"Jack, can you block out the dragon attacks? I can't get anywhere near it otherwise!" Hiccup fixated him with determination.

Jack nodded and Toothless shot ahead, Jack hot on his tail.

He did his best to block and dissolve the blasts of wind directed against them. Earlier he mostly had evaded the gusts, he realized a little bit guilty. Probably gave Hiccup a hard time with that. He'd have to practise teamwork.

However now that the dragon wasn't pestered and distracted as much as before, it focused more on its other intruders. It was extra hard to stop the dragon's attacks while holding it still long enough for Toothless to successfully throw an counter attack.

Unlike Jack's attacks, the blasts of blue fire were effective after all.

Jack had to focus solely on deflecting any wind blast or ice attack while he followed Toothless and Hiccup bombarding the giant dragon.

Unfortunately the dragon had more weapon arsenal and one that Jack couldn't block. "Get down!"

If Hiccup hadn't reacted faster and made both him and his dragon drop down, they would have slammed into the ice dragon's tail whipping at them.

By now everybody was exhausted by the ongoing battle. Hiccup and Toothless had been hit several times with the huge wings or bulky tail, but luckily Jack had been able to push Toothless away just in time to avoid the deathly claws. He himself was getting outworn with the mass of attacks he had to shield for his battle partner, but it was worth it.

The huge ice dragon in return sported a couple of burns and its attacks had reduced slightly – just slightly. Apparently the dragon was distressed that most of its normally devastating attacks were easily cancelled - and it wasn't used to fights solely with its body. The long time in the air worked the dragon out as well and since its bulky, gigantic body was hardly any use for agility, the large dragon was on a disadvantage.

And it was realizing its uncomfortable situation by the minute. "The dragon is retreating!" Jack cheered and felt triumphant even though his whole body ached with weariness.

The dragon roared the last time in exhaustion and frustration and then turned to retreat. But not with Jack.

"After it!"

No chance they'd let the dragon regain its strength and come back later to terrorize the land again!

Both put their last resorts together, plunged after the retreating form of the giant dragon and swept in to attack it. Jack blocked any desperate attempt thrown at them while Hiccup dove deeper to strengthen the impact of the bullets of flames his trusty dragon shot.

Out of sheer mishap one of the enemy dragon's desperate and chaotic counter attacks hit home.

The bulky dragon's tail whipped around and hit Toothless in the last second despite the black dragon hopelessly trying to avoid the incoming tail. The battle was taking its toll on all of them. Toothless hollered in pain with the force of the dragon's tail and was sent crashing down to the forest.

"Hiccup!"

.

Jack raced after them and summoned his best wind in an attempt to cushion their fall.

.

The bodies hit the ground, luckily guided away from the sharp trees and landing with a thump.

.

Jack dropped down on their side and heavily leaned on his staff for support. A quick glance to the others told him they were alright.

.

His wheezes were the only sound on the clearing as he watched the giant ice dragon escape in the distance. He really hoped it was enough to teach the big dragon a lesson. Never underestimate opponents.

He let his forehead sink on his staff with a smile as his body was calming down.

They had won.

.

And his whole body ached. Now that the excitement left his body, he felt so tired. So tired…

.

But when his blue eyes wandered towards the black, unmoving mass in front of him, a shock jolted through his body. Why didn't they say anything?

.

Why didn't they move?

.

.

"…Hiccup?"


End file.
